‘You can’t ever end the push’: Director of player personnel Gene Watson brings a championship pedigree to the Chicago White Sox

Gene Watson had a hand in the Kansas City Royals acquiring Chris Getz and Brian Bannister during their playing days.

“I traded for Chris Getz in November 2009 to the Royals when I worked for Dayton Moore,” Watson recalled Friday. “In ‘06 I traded for Brian Bannister. It’s guys who love to play the game, that have a heart for their teammates.

“Both were guys that while they were playing, you saw guys who took a lot of pride in their work and prepared. Now that they are in front offices (Getz as general manager and Bannister as senior adviser to pitching), they are applying the same attributes to their job.”

Watson has joined them in looking to turn things around for the Chicago White Sox as the team’s director of player personnel.

“All three, with (assistant general manager) Josh (Barfield), are tremendously bright, rising stars in Major League Baseball,” Watson said. “It’s going to be fun to come alongside and help them win here.”

Getz announced Watson’s addition last week.

“Gene is another well-respected person in the industry, 25 years of scouting experience with multiple organizations,” Getz said this week. “He’s got a very strong network when it comes to scouting and decision making.

“Certainly there’s a lot that goes into it. I’ve got a tremendous respect for scouting acumen, a scout’s eye. To be able to collect background and makeup information is certainly a strength of Gene. We’re going to continue to drive that with our group as we put together the best team we can up here and factor in who fits in this clubhouse.”

Watson described his role as “just turning over every rock to find the best players we can.”

”Coming over here, it’s going to be working over the pro scouting department and trying to find the best players we can to help this team win,” he said.

Watson, who on Monday turns 55, was the vice president of major-league scouting/assistant general manager for the Royals for the last two seasons after spending most of 2021 with the Los Angeles Angels as senior adviser to the general manager/major-league operations.

He previously worked for the Royals as a major-league scout from 2006-08, coordinator of pro scouting from 2009-11, director of pro scouting from 2012-17 and as senior director of pro scouting/assistant to the general manager from 2018-20.

Watson was a member of the Royals scouting staff when they won back-to-back American League pennants in 2014-15 and the World Series in 2015.

Watson has known Pedro Grifol for more than 10 years. Grifol was a coach with the Royals before being named the Sox manager.

“He’s wonderful,” Grifol said Friday. “He’s really well-versed in the game, very creative. He was one of the main reasons that Kansas City did what they did in ‘14 and ‘15. He really knows the landscape of the game, he knows the landscape of other teams.

“He’s going to be really good for us. He’s going to help Chris in many ways. He’s going to be a big part of getting us where we want to go.”

In addition to the World Series championship team in Kansas City, Watson was with the Miami Marlins organization when they won it all in 2003.

“I know you can’t ever end the push,” Watson said of the components needed for a winner. “That’s one of the things that I’ve tried to bring to this table. Our goal is to win a world championship here. With that comes a cost in equity, a cost in prospects. It’s expensive to win a world championship. Maybe you will and maybe you won’t. But if you don’t believe you will, you never will. We’re going to continue that mantra and that push here.

“The expectations drive the results, and we’re here to win a world championship. I’m here to help find the best players I can and we’re going to use every vehicle we can. Our professional scouting staff is outstanding, and when it comes to six-year free agents, Rule 5 major-league free agents, comeback guys, going to facilities in the winter to watch bullpens, our relationships with agents, our relationships with past players, we’re going to turn over every stone we can to improve this team brick by brick in the days, months and years ahead.”

Watson sees ingredients on the Sox.

“We’ve got stars on the field,” he said. “We’ve got to put players around them that love to play the game with them and know how to play and that’s what we’re going to work for.”

White Sox suffer 99th defeat

The Sox inched closer to a dubious mark after falling 3-2 to the San Diego Padres in front of 20,491 on Friday at Guaranteed Rate Field.

They are 61-99 and need to win both of their final two games of the season to avoid 100 losses. The Sox have had four 100-loss seasons in franchise history: 1932 (102 losses), 1948 (101), 1970 (106) and 2018 (100). They lost 99 games in 1934 and 2013.

Yoán Moncada and Carlos Pérez homered in Friday’s defeat. It was Pérez’s first major-league home run.

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